Active antenna ceiling tile

摘要

An active antenna may be installed within a ceiling of a building to improve the range of a wireless and/or cellular network. Further, a ground plane may be installed throughout the ceiling to reduce the occurrence of multipath interference of radio frequency (RF) signals. In addition, one or more passive antennas may also be installed in the ceiling to further extend the range of the wireless and/or cellular network within the building. Each of the antennas may be designed to facilitate (RF) signal gain for a collection or range of frequencies. In some instances, the installation of active and passive antennas may increase the range of a communications network, while the installation of a ground plane throughout the ceiling may reduce the occurrence on multipath interference resulting in improved wireless and/or cellular network performance including increased bandwidth and range.

主权项

1. An active antenna ceiling assembly comprising:
a ground plane structure comprising a plurality of ground plane tiles without an antenna layer, wherein each ground plane tile comprises an electromagnetically reflective layer; and an active antenna tile having the same approximate area as a ground plane tile from the plurality of ground plane tiles, the active antenna tile comprising: a first dielectric layer; an antenna layer comprising a number of antennas configured to receive and transmit radio frequency (RF) signals, the antenna layer disposed on the first dielectric layer; and a ground plane layer disposed above the antenna layer and in electrical communication with the ground plane structure, wherein a ratio between the number of ground plane tiles and the number of active antenna tiles is greater than or equal to 8 to 1; wherein the active antenna tile further comprises a second dielectric layer disposed between the antenna layer and the first ground plane layer; and wherein the active antenna tile further comprises a bidirectional power divider in electrical communication with at least two antennas of the number of antennas.